FROM THIS EPISODE

In 2010,Lea Thau went to India to escape a broken heart and to help start a theater project for the Tibetan community in the Indian foothills of the Himalayas, in a small town called Dharamsala, where the Dalai Lama lives. The man sitting next to her in a squeaky office chair at the tiny nonprofit theater project was Lhakpa Tsering. In 2006, during an official visit to India by Chinese president Hu Jintao, he had set himself on fire to protest China's occupation of Tibet. How was it that this young, fun-loving, part-time comedian had come to commit such a radical act at the risk of sacrificing his own life? His story includes a dramatic escape from Tibet. He was on foot and only 9 years old, running away from an abusive stepfather. He found himself in a foreign country, where he didn't speak the language, with no money or passport.